


Alone in Love

by assurancetourix



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 11:56:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8532154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assurancetourix/pseuds/assurancetourix
Summary: Everyone in the world has a soulmate, but not everyone can find them.Will Yuuri and Viktor find each other?





	1. Chapter 1

Soul marks could be anywhere and take any forms, but no two pairs would be identical. They were usually one centimetre big but could be as big as five centimetres.

The marks would appear on both members of the pair when the youngest would reach puberty. Not all soulmates were romantically linked or even in the same generation, but all knew that their soulmate was the perfect companion to achieve one’s goal.

Throughout history, people reacted differently when they go their marks. In ancient history, soul marks were not often considered romantics. They were used to create a relationship deeper than friendship and nearly never a courtship.

This changed when Guinevere fell in love with her soulmate Lancelot while being married to Arthur. They went against the tradition and they ran away for the chance of being together even though it meant being hunted by the king and his guards.

Today, nearly 80% of soulmates who met each other became romantically involve. However, some believed that soul marks were nothing more than a useless drawing.

Depending on the culture, people would show of their marks or not. In North America, the pride and the overall desire to find true love made most people wear their marks as sign of pride, hoping that one day they would find the person that shares the same mark. In most of Asia, but in Japan, in particular, seeing one’s mark was a sign of disrespect and was extremely erotic. So, most Japanese people from a young age learn to hide their marks with any ways possible. Some were unlucky enough that the mark was impossible to conceal and had no other choice then get used to being stared at by everyone.

Yuuri remembered when, in his first year of junior high school, his teacher took a time during homeroom to discuss soul marks and ways to hide them. Yuuri was scared of becoming someone, like his ballet teacher, who had his mark on his face. He had been bullied enough for his overly polite demeanour and his love for figure skating. He did not want to give my ammunition to his tormentor. He went to sleep every day dreading to wake up the next morning with his mark, knowing his luck, right on his nose.

Days and weeks went by and everyone in the class received their own, except him. He thought that maybe his soulmate was younger than him. He knew that the chances of having someone he was already comfortable with was really low. He started hoping that his soulmate would be his childhood friend Yuuko, but his dreams were destroyed when he glimpses Yuuko’s mark on her neck when he knew perfectly well that he did not have any yet.

One morning, his questions were answered when he saw a tiny white, nearly silver, snowflake on the bottom of his wrist. The mark was not more than a centimetre tall and was nearly invisible on his pale skin.

Yuuri smiled. It would not be too hard to hide such a mark. He took a wristband and wore it to school. It was against the uniform code to wear a wristband, but at soon as he explained that he received his mark, the teachers allowed it. He bought different types of wristbands or other bracelet and made sure that he was always wearing long sleeves when possible. He finished his schooling in peace, not ever meeting his soulmate.

.oOo.

In Russia, Viktor became more and more impatient. He was already 16 years old and still not a trace of his soul mark. Every morning, he would do a complete examination of his body, hoping that the mark had appeared, but still nothing. He would often ask his friends who already received theirs about soul marks and something even ask them when they were taking shower at the end of practice if maybe it appeared on his back somewhere he could not see.

When his little cousin, only twelve at the time not only received his mark but met his soulmate before him, Viktor got exasperated. He decided to put all of his feeling for his hopefully existing soul mate in his skating, propelling him into the spotlight of international figure skating.

On a beautiful June morning, only two days after winning the China Cup and qualifying for the second time to the Grand Prix Final, Viktor saw that a small snowflake had appeared on his wrist. His heart jumped in joy. His soulmate existed. He had waited for so long. When he finally calmed down, Viktor calculated that his soulmate must be in the first cycle of his secondary school.

Even though he knew nothing of his soulmate, Viktor started to imagine who they would be and how they would meet. He would imagine falling deeply in love at first sight and living together for the rest of their lives.

Like most European, Viktor did not care about hiding or displaying his soul mark. He was not showing it off to everyone to see, but would not go to extreme to conceal it.

This completely changed when Viktor was seventeen. He had just won the Grand Prix Final on his second try. He was starting to build his reputation as a figure skater and his fans increased exponentially. Sometimes while he was skating his sleeve would slightly come up and expose his soul mark.

The final day of the completion, Viktor was euphoric. He had just won the competition and was still talking to his coach when a young woman jumped on him showing a small snowflake on her wrist.

“Viktor! You are my soulmate. Please marry me!”

Viktor was shocked. That was not the way he had expected to meet his soulmate. He had always thought that he would know and that his heart would have beaten faster upon seeing his soulmate for the first time.

Nonetheless, he turned toward her with a big smile ready to hug her, but he did not have the chance to touch her before Yakov grabbed her by the elbow.

“Yakov? What are you doing?” exclaimed the Russian skater.

He was dragging her away and motion toward the security guard to take care of her. Before Viktor could protest more, Yakov pushed up the girl’s hair showing a sunflower mark. “She is not your soulmate. Nobody can have two soul marks. Her real soul mark is the sunflower; the other one is a tattoo. She just wants to be with you for your money and celebrity status.”

“Leave me alone you jerk. I am made to be with Viktor. I am his biggest fan,” shrieked the girl while she was dragged away by the security.

Viktor fell on his knees, emotionally destroyed. Yakov, who was not the cuddliest person, took the trembling Viktor in his arms and hugged him until he stopped crying.

“Viktor. You are a celebrity now. You need to be cautious. You cannot believe every person who tells you they are your soulmate.”

This was the moment when Viktor started concealing the soul mark and closed his heart to everyone around him. He created a playboy persona to ensure nobody could get close to him and hurt him.


	2. Chapter 2

For nearly a decade, Viktor skated around the world, fans throwing themselves at him with no regards to their soulmates. With his charms, he could have gotten anybody in his bed, but Viktor did not want a one-night stand. Even though Viktor tried his best to build a wall around his heart, he was still a hopeless romantic. His mother spent his childhood telling him stories about soulmates and happily-ever-after endings. He thrived to find the One.

During the years on the skating circuit, Viktor had had crushes. It took him a long time to accept it, but he discovered that the sex of his partner was not a problem for him. He only wanted someone who could really understand him, really know who Viktor was and not only be enamoured with who they thought Viktor was. Viktor believed in the beauty of the soul. Since the discovery of his soul mark, he had felt a certain emptiness in himself like if there were a hole in his heart. He was convinced that when he would find this perfect half, he would finally feel complete.

Viktor remembered his first crushed on a fellow skater. He was only seventeen and the other man was already twenty-two. His name was Nathaniel. His dark blond and curly hair always looked like he just woke up and he was always smiling. He was from Canada and had a nice soft French accent everything he was speaking English. As Viktor’s senior, Nathaniel had the habit of teasing him. Viktor could feel his heart melt. Whenever the Frenchman would ruffle Viktor’s long hair, Viktor was battling the desire to rub his head on his hand just to keep the contact longer. Even thought Nathaniel was from North America, he was extremely private with his soul mark, so Viktor had been able to keep believing that Nathaniel was his soulmate for nearly a year. His broken heart shattered in million of pieces when Viktor notice Nathaniel soul mark on his hip. Nathaniel belonged to someone else and Viktor became convinced that there was nobody for him in this world. Nathaniel had been his first and last crush.

Years after years, Viktor gave everything he had to his sport, not letting himself fall in love or think about love. At every woken minute, he was training or planning his choreographies. His themes were always different and he always gave everything to create the perfect program. His goal was to always surprise the audience. The only theme he always refused to touch was Love.

.o0o.

On the other side of the globe, Yuuri had difficulty adapting to his new environment. Even for a Japanese person, Yuuri had always been shy and private. He had trouble sharing anything about himself and even his parents had never seen his soul mark. Arriving in America had been an extreme culture shock with everyone showing off their marks and touching each other like they were friends since birth.

Yuuri was sure he had seen more soul marks in a day in Detroit than in his life in Japan. With his limited English, Yuuri had trouble explaining to his rink mate his reluctance to show them his mark. He feared that he was looking rude and that everyone would stop talking to him. In the changing room, he would feel the eyes of his fellow skaters on him; it had been a game for the younger skaters to try to see the mysterious mark.

Weeks turned into months and months into a year and people stopped asking about his soul mark, finally understanding that Yuuri was uncomfortable talking about it. Yuuri remembered when, less than a month after his arrival, he got into a fight with his coach.

“Yuuri, come here and chose your costume for the next competition,” yelled Celestino from the other side of the ice, one day after practice. Yuuri followed his coach into the office. The room was full of costumes of different colours and shapes. Some were more discrete and others were flamboyant. Yuuri, pushed by his coach, started looking for the perfect costume for his performance. He looked for nearly an hour, but nothing was catching his eyes. Celestino started to become impatient. He liked Yuuri and believed in his talent, but his shyness was sometimes, like today, getting on the Italian’s nerves.

“Hurry up or I’ll choose for you.”

For long minutes, Yuuri was shocked to silence, not abled to look his coach in his eyes. He was playing with his fingers and he replied.

“Eto… um… it is that… I don’t know… what… um…”

Celestino huffed in exasperation. He did not know how to connect with his student. All of his other students, even those from Asia, ended up on friendly terms with him, but Yuuri was different. He had been here for months and Celestino could count on one hand the times Yuuri talked back to him or even just had looked at him in the eyes. He took two costumes he thought would work well with Yuuri’s performance and shoved them in his hands.

“Here. Take these. Try them and we’ll call the tailor if needed.”

Celestino was walking out of the room when he heard something he had never heard before.

“No.”

Yuuri’s voice was clear, without any trace of doubt or shyness. While his hand was still rubbing against his wrist, he was looking right at Celestino’s face when he continued, “I can’t wear these. I will only wear costumes with long sleeves ending with gloves.”

Shocked, Celestino just stared at his student who had protested. However, he took too much time to answer because Yuuri continued, “if it is not too much trouble… I don’t want to trouble you… I… um… would rather… It is just that… my soul mark… it is on my wrist… I don’t want if to be seen…” Yuuri’s voice was getting quieter while his new found confidence disappeared with each second ticking away. 

Celestino recovered from his shock and smiled reassuringly. “No problem Yuuri. Let’s find the perfect costume and if there is nothing here we’ll go to the tailor tomorrow.” 

Yuuri looked up to his coach and shyly smiled at him. He then knew his career was in good hands.


	3. Chapter 3

Yuuri was crying in the first-floor men's bathroom fourth stall from the left at the biggest figure skating competition. He should have been proud to be here, it had been his dream from a young age to compete on the same ice as Viktor Nikiforov. Instead, he was here crying all the tears his body was able to produce. He had just left the ice, avoided his coach to hide in the bathroom. He had performed horribly badly and ridiculed himself in front of the entire world.

He was sobbing, holding his right wrist in his hand, like if his soulmate would know about his failure if he was not hiding the mark.

Then the door of the stall was suddenly kicked opened by a blond teenager who screamed at him in Russia if Yuuri could infer that from the Russian National team tricoloured sweater he was wearing. Not really waiting for an answer the teen yelled some more and left Yuuri to his tears.

After drying his eyes and ensuring they were not too red, Yuuri went to meet his coach. He knew Celestino wanted to talk about his performance, but Yuuri was unwilling to do so. Their relationship had greatly improved since their first and only argument when he arrived. Celestino knew when to force Yuuri out of his shell and when to leave him alone. Today was the latter. Yuuri did not want to talk to anyone.

They would have managed to do just that, but they were stopped by Morooka-san who asked the one question Yuuri did not want to think about. Yuuri wanted to run away, but he knew he could not do such a thing. Morooka-san had always been supportive of his skating career and if he ran, the journalist would have no other choice than write about it. He gave him a half-hearted answer and got ready to leave when he heard his name be said in a deep voice.

He turned toward the voice and his heart beat faster. Viktor Nikiforov in person. His rational side told him that obviously, the gold medalist of this very event would be present, but until seeing him in person it was not real.

"A commemorative photo... sure."

His voice made his already beating fast heart beat even faster, butterflies were flying in his stomach. Yuuri knew that if he opened his mouth he would humiliate himself even further, so turn turned on his heels and walk toward the exit, ignoring Morooka-san's yells.

As soon as he was out of the ice rink, he started running toward the hotel, his luggage flying behind him. Without stopping to talk to the receptionist, he climbed the six levels before arriving at his room. The burning sensation in his legs and his lungs were a welcome distraction. In one movement, his took his key card and opened the door. Without bothering with turning on the lights he went to hide in his bed to cry.

Celestino arrived an hour later, hopefully after calming any issues his escape had created.

"I am not going to bother you tonight and tomorrow afternoon you don't need to come at the gala, but I expect you to be professional enough tomorrow evening to come and congratulate your fellow skater at the banquet."

Yuuri made a whimpering yes and Celestino left the room.

The next morning, the two of them arrived at the banquet exactly at the begging. Yuuri's Japanese upbringing forbidding him to even conceive being late at an official event. However, as soon as Celestino went to meet his fellow coaches, Yuuri started drinking glasses on glasses of champagne and the rest was history.

.o0o.

Viktor was sitting down in the changing room waiting for his turn for the free program. He had practiced his program already twice without skates and had stretched for half an hour already. The first competitor was on the ice and from the oohs and the aahs, it was not going well for him. Viktor was bored out of his mind. He was ahead of everyone in this competition and his basic score was higher than everyone, so the only way of not making the podium would be to fall as much as the guy on the ice at the moment.

An hour or so later, it was finally his turn. Even though he swore to himself after Nathaniel that he was no longer think about love, he could not stop himself. His theme this year was longing, for his soulmate, for a reciprocate love, for a return of his love of skating. Since his fourth GPF gold medal, he had lost his inspiration, his love for the sport to which he had dedicated his entire life for the last twenty years. He wanted to quit, but he feared the emptiness of his life without skating, so Yakov had convinced him to stay another year. This year's theme had been supposed to help him find his love back, but instead had just left him feeling more and more empty every time he skated in front of an audience or every time he would see soulmates together. At least, he no longer had to see Nathaniel at practices or competition.

In the last few years, he had become closer to his rink mates. He took the young Yuri under his wing. He taught Mila how to improve her axel and to Georgi his quad toe loop. They became closer than his actual family. However, would they stay when Viktor left the ice skating world? Could he risk that?

After the medal ceremony during which, he had to fake a smile and kissed his fifth gold medal. The emptiness did not disappear in this competition either. He shot a glance to his covered wrist, on the which the solitary snowflake was quite similar to his frozen heart.

He was getting ready to leave the ice rink when he saw a yound fan looking at him. Somehow, his heart seemed to beat a bit fast when he caught sight of the beautiful brown eyes. He offered a commemorative photo and was shocked when instead of accepting the fan turn and left the building.

That night, Yakov dragged him, Yuri and Mila to a fancy supper with the sponsor. They were paying, so Viktor took a diabolical delight to choose the most expensive meal on the menu. They had the same boring small talk as in the last fifteen year. In the corner of his eye, Viktor could see Mila struggling to not fall asleep and Yuri's frown becoming deeper and deeper. It was somewhat mean of their sponsor to impose such a dull meal the evening of the competition when they would have rather celebrate. Apparently, their money was paying Yakov salary, their skates and the ice time, so they had the right of a personal dinner instead of the usual banquet that would take place tomorrow.

When the meal finally ended, they all returned to their hotel room, except Mila who was going to her sister's home because she was living in Sochi. They drove her home in the taxi before going back to the hotel. Yakov had to wake Yuri who had fallen asleep in the taxi and dragged him to the hotel room.

The next morning, Viktor had a thought of leaving his soul mark visible during the gala. HIs song 'Something' by the Beatles was about longing and maybe if his soulmate saw the mark they would know that the theme was for them and reveal themselves. However, Viktor knew that his soulmate could not be watching the gala or could just not be interested and leaving his mark in the open would attract possible weirdos. So, like always he skated without a fault and his performance rang the end of the Sochi Grand Prix.

Dressing up for the banquet, Viktor put his usual smiling mask and went to meet the rest of the Russian team in the lobby. Viktor told himself that banquets were just the dull ending of each and every competition, a moment for sponsors to congratulate themselves on their choice of athlete to support. A necessary evil during which nothing ever happen. 

He did not know how wrong he was. The Japanese representative, at least his drunken self, had decided to put some life into the party.


End file.
